Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel.  So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month.  Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law….And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.  Then all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands.  And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground… and the Levites helped the people to understand the Law; and the people stood in their place.  So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.  And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.”  For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.   Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord.  Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” …And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them.   (Nehemiah 8:1-3, 6-10, 12)

     The book of Nehemiah recounts the story of the return of some of the Jews to Jerusalem after the first diaspora and the rebuilding of the wall surrounding Jerusalem; the above passage takes place after the building of the wall, the hanging of the gates, and the registering of the people by genealogy.  The first action of the governor (Nehemiah) and the Levite priest Ezra was to gather the people together in order to reacquaint them with the Law of Moses.   The people stood quietly for hours listening to the Word of God and to the explanations of the passages given by the Levites, then wept and lifted their hands in praise and supplication and worship.  They then went home and celebrated with great feasts because they had heard and understood the laws and goodness of God.  How different from today’s reaction to the Word!

     Can you imagine, dear brothers and sisters, calling together all your friends and family and neighbors together and reading them Scripture for hours; telling them about the way to salvation and the wondrous and awesome authority of our omnipotent and holy God?  Can you imagine them being so overcome with repentance that they begin to weep in sorrow for their sins, and then to lift their arms in praise and celebrate heartily because they now understand  the redeeming power of  the love of the living God?  Probably not.  To our twenty-first century ears, this sounds like a fairy tale which has nothing to do with our reality today.  Yet these people, sinful and unlearned as many of them must have been, were the chosen people of God, a fact that they had deep down never been able to forget.  They had sinned against God and, as a result, had been dispersed amongst the nations, but God in His appointed time brought them back to the land He had given them, and they were now remembering their position as the wife espoused by Jehovah God.  Why does that same rejoicing not take place in the world today?

     God is once more in the process of calling His chosen people out of the nations to which they were sent at the time of the second diaspora and has re-established the nation of Israel, just as He said He would thousands of years ago; many are grateful for the chance to return to the land on which God has set His name, but still have not admitted the power of God to rule His nation.  We who are believers in Jesus as our Lord and our King may be grateful for His salvation and redemptive power, but are we truly rejoicing in His Laws and His Word in the same way the original returnees to Israel did?  Are we, who until recently were assumed to be a Christian people, ready to turn our country over to the authority of God?  It would appear that we are not.  Though most people in the US still identify themselves as Christians, it would seem to me that most mean simply that they believe in some sort of Creator, and are not Muslims, Buddhists or active atheists.  It is far more important in this world  to not offend those who don’t believe in our God and His Son Jesus than to offend God Himself.   Scripture, even in many of our churches, is being so diluted that it is no longer recognizable for what it is: the inerrant word of our righteous and holy Father.  Instead of rejoicing because God gave us a way–in the Scriptures–to know His will, His mind, His heart and His laws, we are instead choosing to elevate to the point of idolatry the will of fallen men.    A warning here:  God will not allow this to stand.  He is just and mighty and He will not give His glory to another.

     In one way, we are far luckier than those long-ago Jewish worshipers:  we have the Word.  We do not have to wait for a gathering in which God’s word can be read and explained to us; we may pick up our Bibles daily and hear His voice speaking to us through the pens of Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles of Christ.  We can give the word to others as well; we can lift up our hands and bow our faces to the ground, and rejoice for the Word of God is as alive today as it was when whispered into the hearts and minds of the prophets!  We can celebrate with music and feasting and thankful hearts that we can hear and receive the eternal word of God; and we should rejoice, for the kingdom of God is at hand!

Maranatha!

So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak.  Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”  And he said, “I am.”  Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”  And he (the man of God) said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.  For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘ You shall not eat bread nor drink any water there, nor return by going the way you came.’”  He said to (the man of God), “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’”  (He was lying to him.)  So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.  Now it happened, as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”  So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back.  When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him.  And his corpse was thrown on the road…  (1 Kings 13:13-24)

     The above excerpt from the book of 1 Kings was nothing more than an aside written into the story of King Jeroboam’s wicked reign over Israel, but it is nonetheless one of the harshest stories of God’s judgment to be found in the Old Testament.  A prophet of God was struck down for his disobedience against God’s word after he was misled by another (lying) prophet.  The story sits uneasily upon those who prefer to thing of God as a gentle and loving God who would never act against someone who believed in Him.  Why, since it really is not a necessary part of the history of Jeroboam, would this even be included in the Scriptures?  I believe that God has a particular purpose for everything that is included in Scripture, and I believe that one purpose  is to demonstrate an object lesson for people throughout all the ages of man; not just those being addressed or chronicled at the time.  In the case of the story of the man of God, I think God has given a warning:  not, this time, to the unbeliever; I believe He instructed this story to be included as a specific warning to those of us who call ourselves men and women of God.

     Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we know (at least in part) the mind and the heart of God.  His mind is revealed to us through the Scriptures; we know what He finds good and we know what He deems to be evil; what is acceptable to Him and what is an abomination.  The love and righteousness of His heart was brought to us through His only begotten Son, and His words have been whispered into our spirits and written on our hearts by His Holy Spirit.  Yet how often we become confused, even to the point of active disobedience, by the words given us by others who claim to be speaking for Him!

     A dear friend of mine was talking to me the other day about the duties of those of us who have been called in these last days to be watchmen on the wall for “such a time as this.”   Like Esther, we need to start preparing ourselves to go before possibly antagonistic beings in order to properly proclaim the name of the living God.  We are running out of time.  More and more people are dying in their sins for lack of knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus our Savior, and we are helping to turn their itching ears to false doctrines and doctrines of devils because we are afraid to listen to the truth of what God tells us.  Many of our dominant mainstream churches are afraid to speak boldly about sin and the need for redemption because they are afraid of losing their tax-free status if they condemn immorality.  They are afraid if they condemn sin, their congregations will dwindle and the tithes and offerings will lessen.  Many who call themselves evangelists are aware that people prefer to hear sermons explaining how God wants all of His people to be wealthy and happy to those that teach that God hates sin and will punish the sinner.  So many of us can say “Jesus loves you” but have been influenced by politically-correct thought into believing that trying to convict people of their sins is hateful and counter-productive.  Is this the word of God?  No, but many Christians believe and follow these false doctrines because they take what spiritual leaders say without consulting either God’s commandments or Jesus’ words, nor do they “try the spirits” before they change their stance.   Often there is enough half-truth to some of the lies that only studying the word of God can bring the real truth to light.  Liberal clergy have eliminated the concept of “capital S” sin by focusing only on the general “small S” sins of  humanity without realizing that making people play nicely together without repentance for the sin nature and individual evil with which we are born and for which Jesus died does not save the soul or renew the spirit.  Some fundamentalist believers spew fervent hatred of those who do not believe or who commit sins without showing the loving spirit which Christ demonstrated in wanting people to turn away from their evil and be granted eternal life in Him.  Both the liberals and the meaner-spirited of the fundamentalists can point to a few Biblical passages that seem to prove their points, but both mislead their flocks and cause them to believe lies.  For those of us who lead or teach others, we must diligently study so that we are certain that we know the heart and mind of God.  If we fail those who listen to us by teaching lies and becoming false prophets, God will not hold us blameless when the time comes to judge those souls.  We have been told by the Word of the Lord.

     Yes, the story of the judgment on the man of God from the book of Kings was harsh, but it speaks to us today as clearly as if the Holy Spirit had whispered it to our hearts this morning:  we have been told by the Word of the Lord, and we are not to turn away from His spoken word.  Not for any reason; not out of fear, or tolerance, or being mislead by another person posing as a prophet.  We listen to Him, and to Him and His word alone.

Maranatha!

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;  therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants shall live.”

     The news agencies have been broadcasting internationally regarding the search for North Carolina girl Zahra Baker, a child who had battled bone cancer that left her deaf and with a prosthetic leg, reported missing last month.  As evidence of her murder by her father and/or stepmother mounts, so does the heart-rending cry from many posting on the news sites:  WHERE WAS GOD???  The same question was asked when suspicions arose against Casey Anthony when her three-year-old daughter disappeared, when the DC snipers took the lives of several people, when a school-room full of Amish children were slaughtered, when a 13-year-old Muslim girl was stoned after reporting being raped, even after the attacks of 9/11 on the World Trade Center in New York City.  The question has been asked in anguish by Christians after every major tragedy of this generation, and in mockery and ridicule by the unbelievers.  How could a righteous, just God who loves all of His children allow such horrible things to happen when He has the power to stop it?  Why would the Father who loved us enough to send us His own Son to be a sacrifice for our sins not intervene to save the precious lives He created?  If He could intervene and will not, doesn’t that make Him uncaring and unjust?  If He cannot, doesn’t that mean He is not all powerful?  I’ve heard these questions asked in various ways a hundred times by people of all different backgrounds, religious affiliations and ages.  The answer, as always, lies in the unchanged and unchanging word of God.  We are reaping the harvest sown by our own rebellion.

      God has always known that forced love is no real love at all.  Because of that, He gave us the greatest gift we have as human beings, wonderful and dangerous in its power:  free will.  We have the free will to choose to accept or reject His gifts of love and mercy.  We have the free will to choose to live our lives in accordance with His laws, or in accordance with the laws of chaos.  We are free to love one another as He has loved us or to sow the seeds of hatred and discord.  We may live in His righteousness or in the evil of the adversary. This is His gift to us.  Although God is omnipotent and omniscient (all-powerful and all-seeing), there is, paradoxically, one thing He cannot do by His very nature, and that is to act against His own word. 

     In an earlier post I pointed out the “if/then” relationship of God’s covenants with man.  God laid out the plan by which man’s life would be an honor and glory to both God and man, and followed the plan with a series of warnings about what He would do if man refused to live righteously and how He would treat the nations and people who followed Him.  He imposed some pretty hefty discipline on His chosen people when they disobeyed Him, but He never forced their compliance.  He does not force either our love or our compliance today.  He has, however, lifted His hand so that we may see what our rebellion against His will has brought into our world. 

     William Yeats’ 1919 poem “The Second Coming” begins:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot held;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

     Brothers and sisters, the center is not holding and things are falling apart because the falcons (we, the created) cannot or choose not to hear the voice of the Falconer (the Creator).   God said that He was setting before us “life and death, blessing and cursing.”  The choice is ours.  Have we chosen life over death?  Have we chosen the blessings available to us through our acceptance of the shed Blood of the Savior?  Some of us have, of course, individually done so, but our world is spiralling (“turning in the widening gyre”) out of control because our nations have turned their backs on the God who gave them being and trusted in their own wisdom and righteousness instead of God’s.  Here in the US we no longer believe that God is necessary to our well-being as a nation.  We were mostly silent when demonic decisions were made to keep God out of the political arena and out of the schools in which our children learn their world views.  We were mostly silent when decisions were made to legalize the killing of unborn children in the womb.  We were mostly silent when nearly any sexual gratification became normalized, no matter how offensive to God we knew these lifestyles to be.  We were mostly silent when child “specialists” deemed ordinary punishment and Christian teaching to be unhealthy for our children; now we are shocked and apalled when our children commit atrocities and we cannot figure out why or where God is in all of this. Have we chosen life?

     Where is God when all these bad things happen?  Right where He has always been.  Watching, loving, calling us to Him.  He has never moved an inch away from us; we have moved away from Him, and we are paying the price for our rebellion.  He has lifted His hand of mercy and restraint from us as He endeavors to bring us back into righteousness by allowing us to see in our world the mirror image of what we have brought upon ourselves.  He was right beside little Zahra as she breathed her last in the company of monstrous parents, loving her and opening His arms to her.  Yes, He could have prevented her death, but His gift of free will is given to the sons of perdition just as it is to those who spend their lives bringing him glory. He did the most wonderful thing for her:  He took her from this transitory world to the paradise of His presence.  He was right beside all of those souls who died at the World Trade Center, welcoming those who lived in His love into His kingdom and mourning the eternal loss of those who would not bend the knee before Him and accept the precious gift of love He had offered them.  He is right beside us now.  Will we choose life and blessing, or will we choose death and cursing?  The choice belongs individually to each one of us.  It belongs to our national leaders, our pastors, our neighbors, our families and our friends. 

     There is such good news in this chaos, brothers and sisters!  God loves you.  God loves you so much that He became Man in the person of His Son Jesus and paid the price of your sins on the cross so that you could spend eternity with Him.  He bridged the gap between His love and perfection and man’s original sin so that we could become the righteousness of Christ, and take the place He always intended us to have at His right hand.  It doesn’t matter what is in your past, how many sins you have committed, or how many commandments you’ve broken:  God, through Jesus, will wash away your sins and allow you to stand spotless before Him.  All you have to do is repent and ask His forgiveness.  Scripture tells us that we have ALL sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that not one of us is righteous.   Yet God has made a way for us out of the chaos of evil.  He has given us a way to put off the sinful man of the past, and be clothed in the white robes of righteousness, through which He will see only Jesus within us.  Praise His Name, forever and ever!

Maranatha!

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.” (Deut. 28:1)

“Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” (Jeremiah 3:22)

     We are now but a few short days from the mid-term elections here in the United States.  While there are many who believe that it is not the place of a Christian blog (or even Christian churches) to comment on the state of politics during election times, several thoughts have been weighing heavily on my heart during this time, and I feel the need to share them. 

     Certainly the above Scripture references were directed toward the Jewish people as they prepared to enter into the land to which  God had brought them but, as is always the case with the Bible, they have application to our lives as well.  Two years ago, we in the States elected to the office of the President a man who promised “hope and change”; a man who was charismatic, young, dynamic and extremely dangerous to the traditional standards that were the foundation upon which our country was built.  He is aided in his determination to change the face of American beliefs by the most liberal and irreligious Congress to ever preside over the legislation passed each year.  Political correctness has become the new religion of the country, and it is being forced onto our citizens with or without our consent.   Christian principles are now being packaged and marketed as “fear” and “hate-mongering” , while the place of Christ in our nation is being marginalized and thrust from the public view.  Herein is my warning:  If we choose that God should have no place in the electoral process, the blessings that God has given us will be taken away, and His hand of mercy lifted. 

     The history of America’s greatness is unique.  We were founded (despite what liberal pundits would have you believe) on Judeo-Christian principles.  Our Founding Fathers admitted that a republic would not be able to survive unless it were based on Biblical standards.  We have been blessed beyond measure as a country because of our willingness to follow the leading of the Almighty; providing more missionaries spreading the Gospel than any other country has been able to, and because we provided support and comfort to His chosen people, the scattered Jewish nation.  Mistakes have been made in this country’s history, of course: the scourge of  slavery during some of our early years, anti-Semitism that ebbed and waned periodically, wars that we might  have been in error to become involved in.  Yet through all of these things, the basic belief in the goodness of our Lord and the leading of good people of God has always brought us to repentence of wrong-doing and a restored relationship between our nation and God.  As a result, God made of us a great nation; prosperous, moral, and strong. 

     Slowly, over the last fifty or so years, things have been changing, so slowly at first that many of our people have remained unaware of what has been happening until  recently.  God has been removed from our public squares, our public education system, our governments and our holidays.  Now we are being told that while we have a right to our religious beliefs, we have no right to air them if in so doing someone else may be offended.  If we choose to support the traditional view of marriage, then we become bigoted, self-righteous haters of anyone who chooses a lifestyle that has now been pronounced to be perfectly normal.  If we choose to continue to fight for the rights of the unborn in the womb, we are said to be removing freedom of choice and declared to be fanatic, right-wing monsters who don’t care if women die or are driven mad by being forced to bear the child of a rapist.  If we, knowing what happens to the spirits of those who refuse the salvation offered by God, continue to try to share the Gospel (Good News) with the unbeliever, then we are considered to be disrespectful and condemnatory of other peoples feelings and beliefs.  Yet there is another Judge of our actions that supercedes any ukase issued by our Federal or local governments, and He tells us:

When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.  Yet if you warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

     Thereby are we commanded by God to confront rebellion against His will openly whenever the need arises.  Are we to do so angrily and meanly?  Absolutely not.  But we are told that we must obey Him and His word: if we do not tell those in need of the Lord the direction in which they are headed, he will surely hold us responsible for their spiritual deaths.

     So what’s all that got to do with the Nov. 2 elections? 

     Many, many people are stunned and appalled by the decisions that have been made by the majority holding office in the last four or five years.  When you go to the polls, go prayerfully.  If we replace the entire Congress (including Pelosi, Reed, Frank and their ilk) with members of another party just as dishonorable and ungodly, then we have made no gains, and the hand of the Lord will not be with us.  The name of the party in power is not what makes the difference to our country–the difference will come only if God-loving and God-fearing individuals once more represent our true interests.  Pay attention to what each candidate says, and how they have voted if they’re seeking re-election.  Pay less attention to the commercials and the liberal commentators, and more to what the candidates have proven to us personally by their words and actions.  Pray for revival; for the hearts of all to turn back to the Lord who has so richly blessed us here in the US in the past and will do so again if we return to showing Him the obedience He demands of us.  If we will once again turn to Him as a Christian nation and place the well-being of ourselves and America once more in His hands, then He will say to us as He did to the early Israelites:

Return to Me; and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not be moved.  And you shall swear, ‘The Lord lives,’ in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory.”

Maranatha!

The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.  It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body….And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”  (I Corinthians 15:42-44, 49.)

“Beloved,  now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  (I John 3:2)

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.  God Himself will be with them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”    (Revelation 21:3-4)

     I have many times begged my unbelieving friends to make the decision now to accept Christ.  I believe Jesus is returning soon to take those who have turned their hearts and lives over to Him with Him to heaven  to celebrate the marriage supper of the Lamb, and it is during this time that the seven-year tribulation period will be marking the final days of the world as we know it now, before Jesus Himself takes the throne on earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  I have written about God’s desire (and my own) that not one should perish in Hell, but should turn instead to the Lord who gives them life and love.  An eternity in heaven, praising God, working for and worshiping Him, living in perpetual light instead of in the darkness of our own sinful desires–wonderous reasons for turning to our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ!  In scripture, we are told there is even more to come:  we shall be like Him.  I never contemplated before what exactly that might mean.  Can you even imagine what it would be like to “be like Him”?

     Let me say right away, we will not become gods.  God is God; we are not.  This is not what John and Paul were talking about, although many people involved in the New Age Movement believe that is what the verses mean. God delights in giving us good gifts, and He has promised to raise us “incorruptable.”  Although we will not be His equal, but will always be servants of the Most High God, He has promised to grant us some of His attributes.  What were some of the attributes of Jesus that we may expect to see God grant us?

First, we will be sinless.  Sin will never be allowed to invade the absolute holiness of the presence of God.  Brothers and sisters, can you even begin to fathom how it will feel to be free of all sin?  No more pettiness, no more anger, no more struggling to overcome addictions, no more stray evil thoughts to undermine our relationship with the Father, no more fear, no more self-consciousness.  God will raise us up incorruptable, to be the people He always intended us to be.  No wonder there will be great joy in store for us in heaven!  Without the constant struggle against our own sinful natures, we will be free to truly love and be loved, to laugh, to use what talents He has given us only for good.  We will be able to love in the way that He loves–without jealousy or selfishness.  I try to imagine what being sin-free will be like and, frankly, I cannot.  When I consider the joy He has already given me in granting me forgiveness for my sin, in sending Jesus to take my punishment for me, I cannot even begin to understand what kind of happiness will be possible when my nature is no longer capable of sinning!  How I look forward to finding out!

    Secondly, we will be wise.  Paul says that “now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (I Corinthians 13:12)  There are so many things I don’t understand;  so many things about which I’ve said, “well, I guess I’ll be able to ask God about it when I see Him.”  He will answer all our questions and show us all truth.  Of course, many of those unanswered questions may mean nothing to me once I come into His presence!  Still, although we often hear that God is Love, it is more frequently overlooked that He is also Truth, and He will lead us finally to see without any doubt whatsoever the ultimate truth of His love. 

     Because of the first two attributes, that we will be both sin-free and filled with His knowledge, we will experience absolute freedom.  To the unbeliever, God always appears to be a spoil-sport; ruining our fun and condemning those things we find pleasurable.  But the reality is that God wants us to have real freedom to enjoy ourselves without harm to ourselves or others–and we can only have that when we can separate ourselves from rebellion against Him.  When we put off the man of dust and put on the attire of the Man of heaven, we will no longer live in rebellion, and we will be free.

     I long to be with my heavenly Father and to meet Jesus in the flesh and to give myself in submission to Him forever.  I also feel some shame that when I see Him I will know that I have disappointed Him many times and not done all the things He has wanted me to do while I am here in my earth-bound condition.  However, Jesus came to earth and made a way for me and for all who would hear Him knocking at the door to their hearts to be forgiven of our sins and to be reconciled with the Father against whom we have sinned.  He places before us now the choice between heaven and hell.  If we choose hell, He will accept our choice; if we choose heaven, He has promised that we will be like Him!  Choose wisely, my dear ones!

Maranatha,

Melissa

“For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgment.  What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can faith save him?  If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works….For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”  (James 2:13-18, 26)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

     Many of those who choose to dismiss scriptural accuracy on the basis of what they call “contradictions” in the Bible often point to the above two references in order to illustrate that the Bible contains only man’s opinions.   How, they ask, can both writers (James and Paul) write such differing accounts of the means of salvation?  This misreading of the intent behind these scriptures is an easy mistake to make if we forget Isaiah’s words that “precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”  When read as a totality, we find that there is indeed no contradiction between the two views; rather, Paul and James were addressing two completely different issues:  Paul was addressing salvation by grace while James was writing of the actions by which true believers may be identified. 

      In Paul’s epistle to the church in Ephesus, he rightly points out that salvation is by grace; “the gift of God, not of works.”  Nowhere does he suggest that we are in no way obligated to live after our salvation in a way that is worthy of this great and sacrificial gift.  We are saved through our faith by the grace of God, but if we refuse to walk with Him and do those things He requires of us, then it certainly begins to look as though our salvation was a transitory one; accepted possibly with a great deal of emotion and thanksgiving and then somewhat regretted when it is discovered that the Christian walk involves some discipline and sacrificing of the self.  Paul cautioned his followers frequently against allowing themselves to slip back into the sinful ways of the “old man” and gave constant encouragement to them to “let us do good to all…” (Galations 6:10) 

     When James proclaimed that “faith without works is dead“, he was not negating Paul’s words that salvation was the grace of God by faith alone, as has been suggested along with the notion that he was saying that works are needed to obtain that salvation;  but rather he was pointing out that faith that does not manifest itself  after  salvation in good works might not be a true faith to begin with.  In Matthew 22: 37-40, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  Can anyone one legitimately claim to love the Lord  and yet remain unmoved by the needs of those whom He loves for both physical and spiritual sustenance?   Consider this:  most of us have seen marriages or relationships in which one spouse or the other is neglected or abused either physically or emotionally by the other.  Usually, the abusive spouse claims to “love” the victimized partner.  Most of us, myself included, usually sarcastically think when we hear this,  ”Yeah, right!”  Because, of course, true love is not about selfishness and self-aggrandizement, but about giving and building up one another.  Loving God works the same way.  Remember, our relationships here in this life are supposed to reflect our relationship with the Father.   If we show no mercy on those whom the Father loves, He will show no mercy to us.  If we refuse to help those whom He would have us help, we are showing Him neither love nor obedience, no matter how strongly we claim to love Him, which equals rebellion against His word.  In fact, if we say we have faith but show it not in our works, then we are exhibiting only a dead faith.  Of course, this is one of the places in our lives where the “judge not” commandment comes into play, because only God knows the truth behind our actions.  There are, no doubt, many people who loudly proclaim the Lord and do good works ostensibly in His name, yet have very little real faith in God and refuse to obey Him in their private lives, preferring the kingdom of self-consequence to God’s.  On the other hand, there are many believers who remain unknown in the world but quietly go through their lives doing all that God has laid upon them to do; without fanfare or thanks they continue to bless those that they come into contact with by easing their burdens, by prayer and by their silent witness.

     Both Paul and James are explicit about the fact that the good works follow faith and salvation.  “Love your neighbor as yourself”  is secondary to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  Many in today’s mainline churches are choosing to believe that the relief of poverty should be the main goal of the Christian community.  While it is undoubtedly the obligation of the Christian to provide relief for others insofar as he is able, we must never lose sight of the fact that our first obligation is to feed the spiritually hungry with the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Some in what are called the “emergent churches” feel that Jesus needs to be “repackaged” to be acceptable to those of other faiths, or to the unbelievers.  While a helping hand should certainly be extended to those in need regardless as to their faith background,  it is our duty and our priviledge to make clear that all help comes from the Hand of our Father God and from His Son, Jesus.  We help no one if we fill their stomachs but leave them to die in the sin of worshiping a pagan god.  Naturally, believers are not the only people who can do good works, but the works themselves are not the goal: the glorification of God is. Jesus wasn’t just a good man who told us to be nice to one another.  He came to bring us new life in God’s presence, and it is this that we must most share, which the false religions cannot:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

  He was and is the Son of the living God, and He has said that “he who is not with Me is against Me.”    His choice is clear.  We may either accept His free gift of salvation and live our lives in Him, or we can reject Him.  There is no in-between.  Are you willing to choose Him now?  Are you willing to walk in obedience to Him; to show your faith through your works and your love?

Maranatha!

Melissa 

“O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.  I am in derision daily; everyone mocks me.  For when I spoke, I cried ; I shouted, ‘violence and plunder!’  Because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily.  Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him nor speak anymore in His name.”  But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones…Cursed be the day in which I was born!  Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!  Let the man be cursed who brought news to my father, saying, ‘A male child has been born to you!’  making him very glad.  And let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent; let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon, because he did not kill me from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always enlarged with me.  Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?’   (Jeremiah 20: 7-9, 14-18)

     Yesterday I threw a temper tantrum at God.  Not a lady-like well-thought-out-and-presented explanation of my feelings of the moment, but a truly childish, hissy-fit of a shouting spree.  I stormed and raged and asked what kind of a good father would behave to his child as He does me:  the kind of fit that, when my son was very little and he directed it at me, hit a nerve at the back of my neck and made me want to really belt him one (no concern for him, please; I never did actually do it).  Not surprisingly, I spent the better part of this morning praying for His forgiveness and feeling like a big, huge, sinful putz.  Truly, brothers and sisters, we serve the most awesome God!  When I opened my Bible right after my prayers, He led me immediately to the 20th chapter of Jeremiah–one of the few chapters in the book of this astounding prophet of God in which I had made no markings or notes or underlinings, nor did I in the least recall the Scripture.  Yet here was this amazing man of God throwing a fit and declaring he would never again proclaim the word of God and cursing the day he was born and the person who had announced his birth! 

     Admittedly, Jeremiah had far more cause than had I to be frustrated.  In his position as priest and prophet to the nation of Israel, he warned his fellow countrymen of the anger of God towards their idolatries and wickedness for a good forty years before they were taken captive by the Babylonians; it resulted (especially in the later years) in his being beaten, imprisoned and put in stocks.  It was after one of these unwarranted punishments that he declared that he would “not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore His name.”  But the Lord’s word was in his heart “like a burning fire” and he could not keep silent! 

     Even David, that “man after God’s own heart” had his moments of dispair.  In Psalm 22, he begins his song,

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?  Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?    

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night I am not silent.  But You are holy, O You  who inhabits the praises of Israel.  Our fathers trusted in You: they trusted, and You delivered them.  They cried unto You, and were delivered…But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.  All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake their heads saying, “He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him:  let Him deliver him, seeing he delighted in Him.”

“Hey, God!”  he seems to be saying.  “Remember me?:   your servant, your  blue-eyed boy?    You delivered all those who came before me!   HELP!”     

     Now, please understand that I am not advocating shouting at God.  But we have a wondrous Father who listens to our rants and our tantrums and still loves us; still uses us for His divine purpose.    He forgives us our sin and picks us up when we fall.    He hears when we cry out to Him and holds us in loving arms while we try to weather the storms that come our way.  Who, among all the false gods loves his children as much as our Lord?  Islam’s Allah is a weigher of good deeds versus bad, and those who follow him cannot be certain of their salvation.  Can you imagine the wrath of this demon god if one of his followers shook his fist at him and accused  him of not paying enough attention to them?  Only our God–the one and only true God of infinite love and mercy–can listen to our childish outpourings and love us just the same and be waiting with open arms for our repentent hearts to turn back to Him. 

     Most people know, at least vaguely, the story of Jonah’s rebellion against God.  He was told by God to go to Ninevah and proclaim destruction upon that city because of the wickedness that was rampant there.  When he refused to do so, and instead chose to try to run away on a ship from what God wanted him to do, a storm came up; Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish (probably a whale).  After three days, the fish vomited him up onto dry land, and Jonah went to Ninevah to do God’s will.    That is the story as most people can tell it.  Yet there’s a bit more.  Because of Jonah’s dire predictions, the king of Ninevah proclaimed a fast and the nation repented of their sins and the Lord’s destruction of that kingdom did not take place.  Did Jonah rejoice?  Nope.  He sat down outside of the city and told God, “You said You were going to destroy them, and You didn’t!  I’ll just sit down here and die since You didn’t do what I told them You would do!”  Jonah was quite angry at God for sparing a repentant  people and making  him feel foolish!  We never know what Jonah did after that, but I’ll bet he got over his miftiness, asked the Lord’s forgiveness, and continued to preach the word of God!  Why?  Because I’m sure that, just as Jeremiah said, His word was in his heart like a burning fire shut up in his bones! 

     If you’ve ever gotten mad at God and lost your temper with Him, as I did yesterday, you can see that we are in pretty good company.  God isn’t mad at us.  He doesn’t hold a grudge when we show ourselves to be unrighteous–that is why He sent Jesus to be our righteousness for us.  As long as we live on this sinful earth we will exhibit human fears and failings, but we can always go to our loving Father for forgiveness and restoration.  And soon, my friends, we will see Jesus face to face and there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain!  Until that time, I will speak His name, because His word is in my heart, and I cannot hold it back!

Psalm 61

Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer.

From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed;

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.

I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. 

For You, O God, have heard my vows; You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.

You will prolong the king’s life, His years as many generations.

He shall abide before God forever.  Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him!

So I will sing praise to Your name forever, that I may daily perform my vows.

By Your Blood–A Praise Song (Hosanna Music)

By Your blood; This temple was built by Your blood; I am a king and priest.

You’ve taken my sins and removed them as far as the west is from the east.

By Your Blood; I am redeemed by Your blood; my soul is restored.

The Holy of Holies is the place I now worship You, Jesus Christ My Lord.  O Holy Lord!

Maranatha!

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You: And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by.

I will cry out to God Most High, to God Who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.  God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.”  –

Psalm 57:1-3

     Lord, it’s 18 degrees outside and my furnace hasn’t worked in nearly two weeks, yet will I trust in You!

     Lord, the mortgage isn’t paid, and there is no way to pay it, yet will I praise Your Name and lift You up, for You are God Most High!

     Lord, my car is unsafe to drive and yet must be driven; yet will my heart swell with gratitude and thanks for the great gifts You have given me and the unfailing love and mercy You have shown me!

     Lord, the enemy has overwhelmed me and stolen from me what You have designated for my use: send now from heaven, and save me from reproach!

     Lord, the enemy whispers in my ear, “I have won; God no longer hears your cry”, yet will I sing and give You praise (Psa. 57:7), for You are the God of my salvation and the Lord of my life! 

     Lord, I lift up praises to You in the snow and the cold, and I lift them up in the sun and the warmth. 

     Lord, I lift up worship to You in the dark and in the depths of the pit, as I lift up worship to You in the light and in the full presence of Your glory!

     Hear my cry, O Lord, and accept my adoration and my worship; for You are God and Lord of all, and in You alone do I put my trust!

Maranatha!